水中花 suichūka are a type of artificial flower which "blossoms" when placed in water.

The Water Flowers of Cerulean City (Japanese: ハナダシティのすいちゅうかThe Suichūka of Hanada City) is the seventh episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on May 13, 1997 and in USA on September 16, 1998.

When Ash and Brock enter the city, they see a big crowd of people in a circle surrounding a building. When they get to the front they see Officer Jenny, and she accuses Ash and Brock of being the criminals. When they prove their innocence, she lets them go, and sent the rest of the crowd away. After that, they sit on a bench and Ash asks Brock for inside information on the Gym Leader. Brock tells him that as a Gym Leader, he cannot give out that information. Then Brock says to him, "I have some stuff I need to check out". They split up, and Ash heads to the Cerulean Gym alone.

When Ash reaches the Gym, he finds three sisters performing underwater. Ash confronts the girls backstage, finds out that they are the Gym Leaders, and challenges them to a battle. The girls, (Lily, Daisy, and Violet) explain that their Pokémon are too tired to battle, and offer to give Ash the Badge without a battle. Ash is about to take it when Misty appears and challengs him.

It turns out that Misty is the youngest of The Sensational Sisters, but they call her "the runt". After Misty argues with her sisters, she challenges Ash to an official Cerulean Gym battle with rules of 2 on 2. Ash tries to send out Pikachu, but he refuses to go into battle because he doesn't want to hurt Misty or her Pokémon. So instead Ash sends out Butterfree to battle Misty's Staryu. After a quick battle, Butterfree gets knocked into the water, causing it to lose the battle. After that Misty sends out Starmie and Ash sends out Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto uses Whirlwind on Starmie, but it jumps into the water and attacks Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto uses Gust, causing Starmie to hit the wall. Just as Ash is about to win the battle, Team Rocket interrupts and tries to steal all the Water Pokémon and the water from the Gym using a giant vacuum machine.

While Team Rocket's vacuum is sucking up the Water Pokémon, it sucks in Pikachu as well. He releases a Thunderbolt, which explodes the machine, sending Team Rocket flying. After Team Rocket is gone, Daisy gives Ash the Cascade Badge. Misty tries to argue, but her sisters convince her that if Ash had used Pikachu from the start, he would have easily beaten all of her water Pokémon. Misty agrees with her sisters and claims that when she comes back from her journey with Ash she will be a great Trainer. Brock then meets Ash outside of the Gym, and together they all head for Vermilion City.

Trivia

Brock's absence during the episode is never explained, fueling much fan speculation.

This episode has led many fans to believe that Misty's last name is Waterflower. In actuality, the words "water flowers" used in the title are merely a metaphor used to describe the three sisters' grace and beauty, and their own names come from flower species.

This is the second time real animals are shown. Fish are seen behind the glass when Ash walks into the aquarium. Real animals were only shown in the first season due to the lack of Pokémon resembling several real-world animals in Kanto. It is unknown why the fish Pokémon Goldeen, Seaking, Magikarp and the many other Water types at the time, weren't shown.

It's implied in this episode that a Gym Badge serves as a secondary ID for a Trainer, or a primary ID for a Gym Leader, as Brock used his Boulder Badge to clear his name in regards to accusations of being a criminal, whereas Ash used his Pokédex as his method of clearing his name.

During this episode, the Cerulean Gym initially offers Ash a Cascade Badge without a fight. This is the first time the Cerulean Gym was shown surrendering a Badge without a fight, the second being when Jimmy challenges the Cerulean Gym in Judgment Day!. Instead of a battle, his Badge was awarded by Daisy for cleaning the pool. The sisters imply situations like these were very common when the Gym was under their leadership in Gotta Catch Ya Later!.

This was the only Gym which had ever offered Ash a badge without a fight until DP165, where it was shown that in front of the Sunyshore Gym, there was a whole pool of Badges.

This episode begins the gag where Brock becomes immediately infatuated by most every girl, first seen as he asks Officer Jenny out.

This episode is also the first episode where Brock is turned down by a girl.

This episode is tied for the shortest time ever between two episodes where Ash has obtained a Badge, having earned his previous Badge only two episodes earlier. The next time this happens is between Haunter vs Kadabra and Pokémon Scent-sation!

Errors

In the Spanish dub, when Misty's sister calls for Seel, she said "See-al".

In one scene, a part of Pikachu's right ear is missing, making his left ear look longer than his right.

Ash's Pokédex only shows Staryu's bottom and right ring. However, throughout the battle, it is shown to only have these rings.

When Pikachu electrocutes Team Rocket the edge of Meowth's ears are shown to be white when in fact they should be black.

When Team Rocket is coming out of their tank, the front part of Ash's hat is white.

Dub edits

The outside of the store Team Rocket looted simply says "マシーン" (machine) in the Japanese version, while it says "MACHINE SHOP INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES ALL MAKES AND MODELS" in the dub. The next shot replaces "ルーム" (room) with "LS".

Like the Pewter Gym, the "Hanada Gym" sign is changed to "Cerulean Gym".

When Ash's Pokédex reads Staryu, it classifies the Pokémon as a hermaphrodite. Ash calls this strange, and Misty tells him it shouldn't matter who someone falls in love with. In the English dub, the Pokédex makes no mention of Staryu's gender and instead comments on its shining core, which is sold as a type of jewelry. Ash now remarks that it's typical of a girl to "show off her jewelery", to which Misty responds by telling him to "quit stalling".